A UK minister gained an insight into Dundee’s standing as a centre for innovation in sciences during a visit to its universities on Monday.
Minister for universities and science David Willetts was given a tour of the research facilities at Dundee University’s College of Life Sciences and met university principal Professor Pete Downes, senior researchers and senior figures from the pharmaceutical industry.
Professor Downes said: “Dundee is well established as a biomedical and biotech hub, which now accounts for around 16% of the Tayside economy.”
Among the areas covered in the visit were the Drug Discovery Unit, which provides a bridge from basic biomedical research to candidate medicines; the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy, one of the UK’s biggest collaborations between academia and the pharmaceutical industry; and Health Informatics, where Dundee is leading in the use of coordinated medical information.
Mr Willetts also saw the influence of Dundee when he presented the Max Perutz Science Writing Award to Dundee student Amy Capes at a ceremony in London last week.
Mr Willetts then went on to visit Abertay University where he announced that Dundee games developer Proper Games would receive £25,000 from Abertay’s Prototype Fund, which is making available £5 million in government and EU funding to back new games and other digital media products.
Mr Willetts said: “Our rapidly expanding digital economy is vital for boosting economic growth, and Dundee has some of the best computing facilities and talent that the UK has to offer.
“This investment will further boost the sector, giving students the opportunity to gain invaluable experience of working in industry and encouraging the creation of new hi-tech jobs and companies.”
Paddy Sinclair, chief executive of Proper Games, said: “It was a genuine pleasure meeting David Willetts. I feel very proud of how our company has grown over the last few years and I relish such opportunities to tell our story and showcase the quality of work that our talented team are producing.”
Paul Durrant, director of business development at Abertay, said: “Proper Games is a very worthy recipient of this UK-wide funding, and they are a great example of the talent in Dundee’s games development cluster and the huge economic potential this sector has for the whole of Britain.”
Mr Willetts also toured the university’s environmental science and computer games departments.